This little-known album by Raul de Souza was recorded for
the tiny but influential label Equipe in 1968. In the 60s many independent brazilian record labels tried to cash in on the
craze for ‘dance’ music and recorded some real ‘turkeys’ in an admixture of American pop and retro samba without ever creating any ‘swan songs’ of note. But from the first track to the last, ‘International Hot’ shows Impacto 8 to be a real band, not a mere novelty act. We caught up with Raul de Souza in Paris to talk about his incredible career…

“The adventure begins with my first memory of childhood. Of being around 4 years old – this would have been in the 1940s. My father was a pastor in Bangu, where I was born, in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. At home we had no radio – nothing to listen to music on. But in those days in Brazil in every church there was a big band and choir and every Sunday I listened to the big band as it enlivened my father’s sermons. This music and the religious songs were my first musical ‘nourishment’. When I was 11 they let me into the band to play percussion and at 13 I met Geraldo, a mechanic and trombonist, and his instrument fascinated me. For the first time I held in my hands
a trombone – the instrument that I would carry with me for the rest of my life.

“It was a valve trombone and everyone was impressed by my musicality and the ease with which I was able to play. My friend Geraldo was my first, and last, trombone teacher. He died when he was 18 and I was devastated by his death. At around 16, or 17, I joined the big band made up of workers from a Bangu textile manufacturer. I actually played the tuba because they already had four trombones! We played at parties, religious parades – there were a lot in those days – and at carnival. We played a lot of ‘choros’ by the composer, sax player and flautist Pixinguinha, with whom I had the pleasure to work alongside during those years.

“In 1953, or 54, when I was 20, I met Altamiro Carrilho, flautist and composer who had just formed his ‘grupo regional’ which
I joined as trombonist and we recorded two albums as the ‘Turma da Gafieira’ – literally the ‘Gafieira Gang’, alongside Baden Powell, Edison Machado, Zé Bodega and Sivuca.
We played samba – music made to dance to in the dancehalls – the ‘gafieiras’! It was enough of a success that we recorded two albums in just one year.

“I always loved to be elegant, well dressed and well presented. When you came from the suburbs you always tried to be the best in everything. I was making some kind of a living, but nothing stable. So, along with some friends, I went to Curitiba, a city in Paraná State, which was very à la mode in 1958 – very European in its culture, architecture and feel, and in 1963
I enrolled into the Army Air Force! Once there, I was able to distinguish myself to some degree – not in the air, but playing music – with the regimental big band during the day and at night in all the gafieiras in town, where I played trombone of course, but also sometimes the double bass!

“Later in 1963 I returned to Rio where I met Sergio Mendes and we formed the Bossa Rio group – a totally original concept, as
it was the first instrumental bossa nova group. We recorded the album ‘Você Ainda Nao Ouviu Nada’ (‘You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet’), then we went on tour around Brazil and, for the first time, to Europe.

“When we came back I formed my first group as leader which featured Airto Moreira, Cesar Camargo Mariano and Clayber and we recorded ‘Raulzinho á Vontade Mesmo’ in 1965, which has just been reissued by BMG in Brazil – joining my other Brazilian and American albums. I’m really happy about this except for the fact that these companies never bother to get in touch to let me know or send me a little money! No comment!

“I returned to Europe in 1966 to play a four month stint at the Monte Carlo Casino where I got to know the young drummer André Ceccarelli whom I met again years later in France when
I found out that we lived in the same village!

“We were together as Impacto 8 for a year or so before we recorded this record. I’d been in São Paulo where I was trying
to get something together. We created this band to make people dance. Around this time I got to know Oswaldo Cadaxo, head
of Equipe, and he suggested we record this band, which is how the Impacto 8 record came about. As we had very little time to get everything together, I got my friend, Bill Vogel, an American living in Rio who was a great player and arranger, to arrange the tracks. The problem was that although we were going down really well as a band, we were there to make people dance but no one was dancing! So in the end we gave up on Brazil.

“In 1969 I went to Mexico where I stayed for three years and played samba and bossa nova in Mexico City, Acapulco, Puerto Vallarda, etc. Then in 72 I went to the States where I ended up living for 18 years. At first I was playing mainly with Airto and Flora Purim and we recorded a number of albums and toured a lot together.

“In 1974 Airto produced ‘Colors’, my first US recording under my own name – Raul de Souza rather than Raulzinho – for Milestone Records. There I had the immense pleasure and honour to get to know JJ Johnson, who agreed to do the arrangements for my compositions. I invited Jack de Johnette, Richard Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Ted Lo and all those guys
to play on the record and it was really a great experience
for me.

“I followed up ‘Colors’ by working with George Duke, with whom
I explored the whole funk thing more. I was also invited to play and record with some great musicians and friends like Sonny Rollins, Hermeto Paschoal, Egberto Gismonti, Jimmy Smith, Sarah Vaughan, Antonio Carlos Jobim and many others.

“It was at this time that I invented my own kind of trombone –
the ‘Souzabone’. This was in LA in 1975, when I went to visit
the famous instrument maker Dominique Calicio. I told him
that I’d always wanted to create my own trombone in the key
of ‘Do’ with chromatic valves and ended up making it for me. The Souzabone also had an electric pickup, which I used
when I played funk on my records ‘Sweet Lucy’ and ‘Don’t
Ask My Neighbours’. It’s a unique instrument that I use time and time again.

“In the 90s I returned to Brazil for a few years. I had five kids down there and I needed to get to know them better before leaving again. I arrived in France in 1999. France is a place where I’d been many times before and played with great musicians like Pierre Michelot, Kenny Clarke and others. It’s
a country that I always felt accustomed to, a place of culture, where it’s possible to live well and also where I have a young daughter [who’ll soon be eight years old] and I didn’t want her
to go to school in Brazil. Brazil is a beautiful country too, but it’s very dangerous and that’s why I chose to stay here in France.

“And here the adventure continues. I met Tuna Ötenel who invited me to play on his album ‘Voyageur’ – another wonderful experience – with Pierre Michelot and Philippe Combelle, all
on this album of fantastic compositions by Tuna. I had a great time with those guys.

“Recently I’ve been working with a group called LAETA. Since our first meeting three years ago, we decided to get together and form ‘Raul de Souza et LAETA Group’. We’ve been working together on a project in a current jazz style, but utilising modern techniques – sampling and ‘pads’ etc. This kind of work interests me because I find that it’s a kind of continuation of the
work that I did in the US in the 70s during my funk period.
We play together a lot and I hope that soon we’re going to be releasing our new album, which we’re recording right now.
The compositions are very modern, ambitious, original and colourful. The whole group is excellent and I think that our music gives off energy and dynamism and a sense of joyousness to those who hear us. That’s essential!”

And so the adventure continues!

Raul de Souza – France July 2002

Remastered by Luigi Hoffer at Digital Mastering Solutions
Rio de Janeiro August 2002